16 miles of hiking • 6000' elevation gain • 1 night
We stashed a bike at the Putvin TH, then drove back down the Hamma Hamma road and started up the Lena Lakes trail. Continued to Upper Lena where we were supposed to camp and climb Mt Bretherton. We were inside a cloud with limited visibility so we decided to skip the climb and continue on the Scout Lake Trail. This was heavenly terrain, undulating through heather and huckleberry. The dwarf huckleberries are ripe and so sweet. We hoped to see some bears, but we only saw their sign. Although it did not rain, it was misty and the soggy vegetation soaked our legs and feet despite rain pants and gaiters. Camped at Deerheart Lake.
We were very happy to unzip our tents to blue sky the next morning, and the views were delightful as we continued on the traverse through golden meadows and numerous ponds on the Stone Ponds Way Trail . St Peter's Gate was very sketchy. We dropped down via boulder field and bushwack near Lake of the Angels and got onto the notorious Putvin trail for the descent. It seemed trivial compared to what we had just done. Rain started during the last hour, and the bike ride back down to retrieve the car in a deluge was 50/50 thrill, sufferfest.
